IN response to Mrs Gladys Robinson (Letters, June 30), we are a multicultural society -- because we always have been.
How could it be otherwise? To start with, four nations make up these islands -- the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh, each with different histories and cultures.
What would Britain be like had not successive waves of different cultures settled on these islands? Starting with the Romans, then the Anglo-Saxons (the original English), the Vikings and the Normans, right up to the East European Jews in the 19th century and Asians and Afro-Caribbeans in the 20th century, each of these cultures has influences Britain and made it what it is today.
Finally, Britain was for 200 years at the heart of the British Empire -- the largest, most culturally-diverse state the world has ever seen, stretching from the Americas through Asia into Australasia.
The interaction between the different cultures of Britain and their responses to new and different cultures settling here are an integral part of the history of Britain. The challenge has always been how these different cultures can live together in peace and mutual respect.
People like Mrs Robinson want us to return to a monocultural, ethnically pure Britain, which, in reality, never existed. Britain is a multicultural society. It always has been, it always will be.
COUNCILLOR DAVE HOLLINGS, Sudell Road, Darwen.
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